Another Coolermaster U3 & Bottom Tray Mod

I recently bought a Coolermaster Notepal U3 and decided to mod it with 12V fans like many others before me. I also modded my bottom tray and ran some tests. Thought I'd share for anyone interested in doing something like this for their M15X.

Section 1: Notepal U3 Mod

Fans are EK Vardar F4-120 2200RPM (Dual Ball Bearing/ 77cfm / 3.16 mm H20 / 33.5 dba /2.16W). As you can see three of them in a row line up perfectly with the holes in the cooler's base. They get quite loud at full speed but push a lot of air. I tried some 1000rpm fans before I got these and they were dead silent but hardly pushed any air. If you want the fans to make a real difference you're gonna have to accept some noise. Some fans are quieter than others but once you start pushing 1800+ rpm, they all tend to get quite loud. Look for fans with high static pressure ratings and either ball or fluid dynamic bearings. Try to avoid sleeve bearing fans for horizontal mounts like this.

Fan Controller is a Zalman Fanmate 2. It's a decent fan controller rated at 6W so I'm a bit over its rating. The fans make a low humming sound when connected to the controller so I'm probably going to replace it. Power adapter is a 110-240V AC to 12VDC 1A (12W) adapter with 5.5mm plug.

Here's a crude diagram for anyone interested:

Section 2: Bottom Tray Mod

Using my rotary tool, I cut out three sections from the tray. I then needed some metal mesh material to cover the openings. I had a cheap 10 dollar cooler that I sacrificed for this. I cut out the metal mesh and used epoxy to hold it in place. Thanks to King of Interns who's tray mod inspired me to do this .

REMARKS: Tests were done without fan controller. 12V test was done with direct current from adapter. 9V tests were done with voltage dropping resistors on each fan (22Ω 1W).

3DMARK06 SETTINGS:

Tests Used: ALL CPU/GPU Tests Selected

Test Loop: Each test was run in a continuous loop of 5 runs per test

Screen Resolution for testing: 1280x1024

Monitoring Software: HWinfo64

OCCT SETTINGS:

Test Used: GPU DX11 Burn Mode

Duration: 10 minutes per test

Remarks: All default settings

Monitoring Software: HWinfo64

3DMARK TEST 1: COOLER FANS OFF / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 74C

CORE 1: 70C

CORE 2: 74C

CORE 3: 78C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 73C

3DMARK TEST 2: COOLER FANS @ 12V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 69C

CORE 1: 66C

CORE 2: 69C

CORE 3: 74C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 67C

3DMARK TEST 3: COOLER FANS OFF / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 74C

CORE 1: 69C

CORE 2: 73C

CORE 3: 78C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 72C

3DMARK TEST 4: COOLER FANS @ 12V/ BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 64C

CORE 1: 61C

CORE 2: 66C

CORE 3: 70C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 63C

3DMARK TEST 5: COOLER FANS @ 9V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 72C

CORE 1: 69C

CORE 2: 70C

CORE 3: 75C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 69C

3DMARK TEST 6: COOLER FANS @ 9V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 68C

CORE 1: 62C

CORE 2: 68C

CORE 3: 70C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 64C

OCCT TEST 1: COOLER FANS OFF/ MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 76C

OCCT TEST 2: COOLER FANS @ 12V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 65C

OCCT TEST 3: COOLER FANS OFF / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 75C

OCCT TEST 4: COOLER FANS @ 12V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 60C

OCCT TEST 5: COOLER FANS @ 9V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 68C

OCCT TEST 6: COOLER FANS @ 9V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 63C

Well, as you can see results are pretty good, especially with the bottom tray removed. The surface of the U3 is quite restrictive. I think if bigger holes are cut out, air will flow much more freely, but I am not willing to do this (yet) because it will ruin the look of the cooler. From my results, even at lower rpms, you can see that these fans still push out plenty of air to make a difference. At 9V these fans could still be heard, but the sound level is quite acceptable. I think for people that game with headphones like I do, noise won't be much of an issue.

Absolutely love the mesh mod to the bottom cover. That looks so professional! I just have huge holes in my bottom cover. Also nice work on all the wiring. What adapters are you using from 3-pins to your 12V DC? I've looked around and never found the right ones.

Absolutely love the mesh mod to the bottom cover. That looks so professional! I just have huge holes in my bottom cover. Also nice work on all the wiring. What adapters are you using from 3-pins to your 12V DC? I've looked around and never found the right ones.

Click to expand...

Not sure exactly which adapters you mean. I had a bunch of old computer supplies laying around so I made the harnesses myself from old parts and wiring. My harness is essentially like the one below.
Here's a link for these harnesses.